Leslie Poles Hartley was born in Wittlesey, Cambridgeshire, in 1895 and was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. During the First World War he was a junior officer in the British Army, though he was never on active service. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for such periodicals as the Spectator, the Saturday Review, the Sketch, the Observer and Time and Tide. He published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled Night Fears, in 1924. The Shrimp and the Anemone, his first full-length novel, did not appear until 1944. The first volume of a trilogy, it was followed by The Sixth Heaven (1946) and Eustace and Hilda (1947), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and is also the title by which the whole work is generally known. It was recognized immediately as a major contribution to contemporary English fiction. His other novels include The Boat (1949) and The Go-Between (1953), which was awarded the Heinemann Foundation Prize of the Royal Society of Literature in 1954 and was later made into an internationally successful film, while the film version of The Hireling won the principal award at the 1973 Cannes festival. In 1967 he published The Novelist's Responsibility, a collection of critical essays. His later books include My Sister's Keeper (1970), Mrs Carteret Receives (1971) and The Harness Room (1971). He was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours List in 1956.
L. P. Hartley died in 1972. Lord David Cecil described him as 'One of the most distinguished of modern novelists; and one of the most original. For the world of his creation is composed of such diverse elements. On the one hand he is a keen and accurate observer of the processes of human thought and feeling; he is also a sharp-eyed chronicler of the social scene. But his picture of both is transformed by the light of a Gothic imagination that reveals itself now in a fanciful reverie, now in the mingled dark and gleam of a mysterious light and a mysterious darkness ... Such is the vision of life presented in [his] novels.'
L. P. Hartley died in 1972. Lord David Cecil described him as 'One of the most distinguished of modern novelists; and one of the most original. For the world of his creation is composed of such diverse elements. On the one hand he is a keen and accurate observer of the processes of human thought and feeling; he is also a sharp-eyed chronicler of the social scene. But his picture of both is transformed by the light of a Gothic imagination that reveals itself now in a fanciful reverie, now in the mingled dark and gleam of a mysterious light and a mysterious darkness ... Such is the vision of life presented in [his] novels.'
Series
Eustace and Hilda
1. The Shrimp and the Anemone (1944)
aka The West Window
2. The Sixth Heaven (1946)
3. Eustace and Hilda (1947)
1. The Shrimp and the Anemone (1944)
aka The West Window
2. The Sixth Heaven (1946)
3. Eustace and Hilda (1947)
Novels
Simonetta Perkins (1925)
The Boat (1949)
My Fellow Devils (1951)
The Go-Between (1953)
A Perfect Woman (1956)
The Hireling (1958)
The Bachelors (1960) (with Muriel Spark)
Facial Justice (1960)
Peter Bien (1963)
The Brickfield (1964)
The Betrayal (1966)
Poor Clare (1968)
The Love-Adept (1969)
My Sisters' Keeper (1970)
The Harness Room (1971)
The Collections (1972)
The Will and the Way (1973)
The Boat (1949)
My Fellow Devils (1951)
The Go-Between (1953)
A Perfect Woman (1956)
The Hireling (1958)
The Bachelors (1960) (with Muriel Spark)
Facial Justice (1960)
Peter Bien (1963)
The Brickfield (1964)
The Betrayal (1966)
Poor Clare (1968)
The Love-Adept (1969)
My Sisters' Keeper (1970)
The Harness Room (1971)
The Collections (1972)
The Will and the Way (1973)
Collections
Night Fears (1924)
The Killing Bottle (1932)
The Travelling Grave (1948)
The White Wand (1954)
Two for the River (1961)
The Collected Short Stories of L P Hartley (1968)
Mrs Carteret Receives (1971)
The Complete Short Stories of L P Hartley (1973)
Night Fears and Other Supernatural Tales (1993)
The Collected Macabre Stories of L.P. Hartley (2001)
The Killing Bottle (1932)
The Travelling Grave (1948)
The White Wand (1954)
Two for the River (1961)
The Collected Short Stories of L P Hartley (1968)
Mrs Carteret Receives (1971)
The Complete Short Stories of L P Hartley (1973)
Night Fears and Other Supernatural Tales (1993)
The Collected Macabre Stories of L.P. Hartley (2001)
Non fiction
Essays By Divers Hands (1966)
Royal Society of Literature (1966)
The Novelist's Responsibility (1967)
Royal Society of Literature (1966)
The Novelist's Responsibility (1967)
Anthologies containing stories by L P Hartley
The Ghost Book (1926)
The Black Cap (1927)
Shudders (1929)
When Churchyards Yawn (1931)
A Century of Creepy Stories (1934)
Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror 3rd Series (1934)
The Great Book of Thrillers (1935)
The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries (1936)
And the Darkness Falls (1946)
The Second Ghost Book (1952)
The 3rd Ghost Book (1955)
The 1st Pan Book of Horror Stories (1959)
The Haunted Looking Glass (1959)
Spine Chillers (1961)
Best Tales of Terror (1962)
The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1964)
The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1966)
Medley Macabre (1966)
The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1967)
The 5th Ghost Book (1969)
Eleven Great Horror Stories (1969)
The 6th Ghost Book Book 1 (1970)
London Tales of Terror (1972)
The 8th Ghost Book (1972)
Great British Short Stories (1974)
The 10th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1974)
The 14th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1978)
Sixty-Five Great Tales of the Supernatural (1979)
Black Water (1983)
The Penguin Book of Horror Stories (1984)
Realms of Darkness (1985)
The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996)
Nightshade (2000)
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (2000)
The Black Cap (1927)
Shudders (1929)
When Churchyards Yawn (1931)
A Century of Creepy Stories (1934)
Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror 3rd Series (1934)
The Great Book of Thrillers (1935)
The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries (1936)
And the Darkness Falls (1946)
The Second Ghost Book (1952)
The 3rd Ghost Book (1955)
The 1st Pan Book of Horror Stories (1959)
The Haunted Looking Glass (1959)
Spine Chillers (1961)
Best Tales of Terror (1962)
The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1964)
The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1966)
Medley Macabre (1966)
The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1967)
The 5th Ghost Book (1969)
Eleven Great Horror Stories (1969)
The 6th Ghost Book Book 1 (1970)
London Tales of Terror (1972)
The 8th Ghost Book (1972)
Great British Short Stories (1974)
The 10th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1974)
The 14th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1978)
Sixty-Five Great Tales of the Supernatural (1979)
Black Water (1983)
The Penguin Book of Horror Stories (1984)
Realms of Darkness (1985)
The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996)
Nightshade (2000)
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (2000)
Short stories
The Cotillon | |||
Monkshood Manor | |||
Someone in the Lift | |||
The Island (1924) | |||
Night Fears [short story] (1924) | |||
A Summons (1924) | |||
A Visitor from Down Under (1926) | |||
The Killing-Bottle (1927) | |||
The Travelling Grave [short story] (1929) | |||
Three, or Four, for Dinner (1932) | |||
A Change of Ownership (1948) | |||
Conrad and the Dragon (1948) | |||
Feet Foremost (1948) | |||
Podolo (1948) | |||
The Thought (1948) | |||
W S (1951) | |||
The Two Vaynes (1966) | |||
The Shadow on the Wall (1969) | |||
Fall in at the Double (1970) | |||
Mrs G G (1972) |
Books about L P Hartley
Wild Thyme, Winter Lightning (1974) by Anne Mulkeen
Best Friends (1990) by Julian Fane
Brodie's Notes on L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between (1993) by G E Brown
Best Friends (1990) by Julian Fane
Brodie's Notes on L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between (1993) by G E Brown
L P Hartley recommends
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